Technological progress is often based on the availability of new and improved materials which enable increasing the performance of new products or new methods of manufacture. For example, the discovery of the class of high temperature superconducting ceramics has given rise to numerous possible new products and new manufacturing methods. Frequently, progress in new material developments arises from the discovery of new chemical compounds or more sophisticated methods of manufacturing products, such as, new methods of miniaturization for use in integrated circuit manufacture. Recently, methods have been developed for controllably producing ultrafine-grained, or nanocrystalline, materials (typically, about 1-100 nm grain diameters). These new methods have made possible the production of new materials having substantially different physical and chemical properties than the large grained, or single crystal, counterparts having substantially the same chemical composition. Numerous traditional problems in areas such as ceramic materials can now be addressed using these new nanocrystalline materials to control and modify materials properties.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide improved methods and products of manufacture of nanocrystalline materials.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel method of preparing a product nanocrystalline material using variable gas pressure atmospheres.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved method of manufacturing any electronic components encompassing different nanocrystalline or nanophase materials.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a novel method of preparation of titanium/oxygen and zinc/oxygen nanocrystalline and nanophase phases.
It is also an object of the invention to provide new nanocrystalline and nanophase materials for magnetic materials applications.
It is another object of the invention to provide novel products of substantially stoichiometric TiO.sub.2, MgO, ZnO and Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 using selected oxidizing atmospheres.
It is a still another object of the invention to provide an improved method of preparing nanocrystalline materials having at least one of selectable porosity and grain size.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a novel method of producing a nanocrystalline ceramic material having predetermined sintering characteristics.
It is still an additional object of the invention to provide an improved method of mechanical processing of a nanocrystalline ceramic material, while controlling mechanical properties by adjustment of grain size.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method of manufacturing nanocrystalline zinc oxygen compounds for use in varistors.
It is still another object of the invention to provide new forms of nanocrystalline titanium oxide sensors.
Further objects and advantages of the invention together with the organization and manner of operation thereof, will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and nonlimiting examples.